Hip-Hop: The Realization of an American Dream

By Staff

It’s a classic American rags-to-riches tale. But this one includes beats, rhymes and expensive bottles of bubbly.   The most prevalent theme in most rap songs is the desire for wealth, which is a huge part of the American Dream.     It started out as a movement found within small pockets of urban cities, but the capitalist choke-hold eventually took over.   Hence, Hip-Hop has left an indelible mark on American culture and a vast representation of what it means to aspire, achieve and accumulate.

Hip-Hop was born from extreme poverty and struggles faced by many young African-Americans living in the South Bronx.   Lack of jobs forced many residents to resort to illegal and unsavory means of providing for their families.   These pains were played out on the streets day after day.   Hip-Hop was their saving grace.

Let’s define: Hip-Hop is the culture while rap is the art of rhyming over the beats.   Hip-Hop as a culture includes music, dance and fashion.   In earlier days graffiti and DJing were also essential elements.   The rapper became the spokesperson for inner-city struggles and the perpetrator of hope, progress, and unity.   In a televised interview, Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z stated that Hip-Hop has done more for civil union that any other single movement in this country.   He didn’t intend to negate the progress made from the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, but he points out that blacks, whites, purple and green people worldwide unite over the love of Hip-Hop and rap music.   We live in a time when Nicki Minaj trends faster than the President of the United States.

Hip-Hop in all its exuberance and glossy images help shape the youths’ ideas about what “winning- really is. Every neighborhood has a Jay-Z or a Nicki Minaj who came of age not believing that the American Dream was attainable.   Arguably, if the Constitution were not drafted with blacks and women in mind, why would the Dream be any different?   Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a vision about it, but surely he didn’t imagine that it included tricked out cars and indoor/outdoor pools.   It is a proud moment in time for many, yet a frightful existence for some.

Such disagreeable views about life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness are expressed all over the country from the conservative Fox News network to the roundtable at “The View-.   Attaining this ideal of the Dream has yet to be fully accepted by the masses, and is often dismissed as unrealistic, fantastical, and even deplorable.   The POTUS has been criticized for being a fan of rap music as well as breaking bread with some of its participants.   It doesn’t have the esteem and the illustrious honor of a doctor or lawyer.   Some believe it is a perverted medal of honor.   But it is a dream, no less, that became realized from years of a recurring nightmare.